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Six years ago this morning, my grandfather Brawley Vaughan passed away peacefully at the Eastern Nebraska Veterans Home. He was 87 years old. I’ve documented at length the man that he meant to his family and to me. Every year this day leaves a bit more of my heart in pieces. But in all of…

Alan Rickman passed away today. I never met him and he certainly had no idea I even existed, but I am devastated by the news. You see, he created an unexpected pathway to my teenage daughter, Taylor. A cherished connection in the budding years of her life where I’m becoming irrelevant and aged to her….

My girls have been helping with chores around the house and have really taken to their “jobs.” Taylor, 11, helps with the glass, vacuuming, and dusting while Cate, my six year old has been emptying the dishwasher, folding laundry, and putting it away. She stacks the spoons backwards, and can’t reach all the cupboards, so…

Music is a powerful force. A single note can take us back, instantly, to another place and time. Songs you’ll never forget, no matter how much time passes, so connected to your history that they aren’t just songs, they are tangible memories, part of your past, and the emotional reaction when you hear them is back to…

Taylor and Cate, August 13, 2013 My two girls returned to school yesterday. Taylor boarded the bus at 7:20AM. That was a first for us both and I know she was nervous, though she tried not to let on. She timidly smiled and gave me a small wave as she stepped up on the stairs…

Sometimes in between those big life altering moments, you have small ones, just as significant, that you recognize will completely change everything. And when you recognize the significance, it’s not scary or overwhelming, it’s the opposite. It’s like coming home, maybe the home where you should have always been you were just too scared to…

“Let children walk with Nature, let them see the beautiful blendings and communions of death and life, their joyous inseparable unity, as taught in woods and meadows, plains and mountains and streams of our blessed star, and they will learn that death is stingless indeed, and as beautiful as life.” ― John Muir This spring…

Cate plays this game when we’re walking on the sidewalk. She extends her arms out like wings and skips, avoiding the cracks hopping from one foot to the other. She’s careful to never let her foot hit a fissure on the ground at her feet. She laughs, sometimes holding the hair off her face, never…

The CrossFit Open is upon us. So far, more than 110,000 athletes, 2,400 teams, and 20,000 Masters have registered for this year’s Open competition. More than 3,600 affiliates are represented from 115 countries around the globe. This is a huge jump from 2012, where only 69,000 athletes competed. This is one of the world’s largest…